SAILOR MOON-Violence and Corruption
Part 8: "The Direct Approach"
By Bill K
Luna glanced at the clock on the infirmary wall. It was approaching nine
a.m. She'd neither seen nor heard anything about what was happening in the
outside world since Usagi left with Artemis around four the previous afternoon.
She'd tried to sleep and let her body heal, but worry prevented her from doing
so.
"The devil take these blasted ribs," she muttered, rising gingerly so as
not to jar them and receive another painful rebuke from her skeleton. The
muscles in between the bones protested at being forced to move and the black cat
winced.
She stared out through the bars of her cage, frustrated at her inactivity
and her inability to know precisely what was going on. On impulse, she reached
through the bars and tried to snag the latch with her paw to open it. However,
it was the paw with the torn claws and that, coupled with her aching ribs,
forced her to pull it back in before she could open the latch. The cat expelled
a very human sigh of frustration.
"Oh, I wish someone would get me out of here," she muttered. "If I have
to spend much more time wondering and worrying, I think I shall surely go mad."
* * * *
Ami ran down the street, hoping to head off Usagi. She had finally gotten
released from the hospital late last night. Her mother had taken her straight
home and forbade her from going out once they were in the penthouse apartment.
It hadn't prevented Ami from trying to call Usagi; however, each of the ten
times she attempted a call, she received a recorded message saying the number
was temporarily out of order. Ami fell into a fitful sleep that night only at
the behest of her mother.
Finally in the morning her mother realized the impossibility of keeping
the two girls separate for the rest of time and reluctantly granted Ami
permission to go to Usagi's house, but only with a dire warning to remain alert
at all times and tend to her own safety. Ami was out of the apartment inside of
thirty seconds and running toward the Tsukino home.
"It's not likely Usagi's going in to school today, given the current
emergency," Ami reasoned as she ran. "I don't know where to start searching if
she's already left."
Her line of reasoning trailed off when she got in sight of the home.
Police crime scene tape surrounded the home. As she approached, Ami could see
the front door had been ripped from its frame and the front window was broken.
A police car stood guard by the front gate. For several moments Ami stared, too
stunned to move. Then she broke into a run and ran up to the officer next to
the car.
"Officer, please!" Ami cried, clutching at his arm. "What happened here?"
"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.
"My name is Ami Mizuno! I'm a friend of the girl who lives here! Please,
tell me what happened? Is Usagi hurt?"
"I'm sorry," the officer replied. "I'm not allowed to discuss the
specifics of the case. As to the residents, they were transported to the
hospital. They'll be able to give you more information on their condition."
Ami stared at him in shock. When she finally realized she wasn't going to
get any more information from him, she stumbled away from him and numbly walked
down the street. Several houses away, though, she heard a voice hiss at her.
"Ami!" She looked down to the left and, crouched in the gateway of a
house, was Artemis.
"Artemis!" she gasped, scooping him up. He winced when her hand touched
his broken foreleg. "Where's Usagi?"
"I don't know."
"What happened here?"
"The renegade senshi attacked Usagi's family to draw her out," Artemis
told her. Ami shuddered at the thought of such blatant cruelty. "Usagi and the
Black Moon sisters chased them off. I couldn't keep up and lost them."
"The Black Moon sisters?" gasped Ami.
"Well, Usagi couldn't take those girls on alone."
"Then Usagi could be. . ." Ami began fearfully.
"I just don't know. If you've got your communicator, we can call Saturn
or one of the other outers. Maybe they know something."
Ami looked down and saw the communicator was missing.
"That's right," she whispered. "We destroyed them so you and Luna couldn't
track us. Oh, Artemis, it's just one nightmare after another!"
"Yeah. So how much do you remember?"
Ami didn't answer. The welling tears and the trembling lower lip were
answer enough.
* * * *
"Ahhhhhhhh!" Rei gasped as she jumped to consciousness. Disoriented, she
looked around. At first, her surroundings seemed alien. Then she recognized it
as the home the outer senshi shared.
A hand touched her shoulder and she recoiled fearfully. But when she
turned, it was only Hotaru, her hand pulled back in surprise. Rei let her
breath expel.
"Sorry if I scared you," Rei whispered.
"Sorry if I scared you," countered the young girl. "Do you remember what
happened to you?"
Rei searched her mind for a moment. Suddenly it all came flooding back.
Her lower lip began to quiver and her hand went to cover her mouth, to somehow
smother the sob that was coming. A tear trickled down her cheek. Instantly
Hotaru was beside her, holding onto her.
"You remember it all, don't you?" she asked. Rei nodded, her personal
pain mirrored on her face. "I know what it's like. Waking up and suddenly
remembering unspeakable acts of evil being committed by some alien force using
your body. I know what you're going through."
Rei turned to her, sympathy glimmering through her own pain and guilt.
"Just remember it's not your fault," Hotaru smiled. "Don't blame
yourself."
Rei gathered the girl up in her arms and hugged her tight, almost clinging
to her for strength.
"Is Usagi all right?" Rei asked.
"The Princess is physically well," Setsuna said, entering the room. "I
cannot speak to her emotional well-being. She has gone to tend to her family."
"Just as well," whispered Rei. "I'm not sure I could face her right now."
"Why not?" demanded Hotaru.
"After all I've done to her? After everything I said, every physical and
emotional scar I've inflicted on her the last few days?"
"That is ridiculous," Setsuna said, evenly and emotionlessly. "It is as
Hotaru said. You were controlled."
"We let ourselves be controlled," Rei replied. "We weren't strong enough
to fight back. We weren't strong enough to keep from being forced to inflict
all this pain and suffering. And," and Rei looked down in shame, "and those
things we said - - at least in my case - - well, they weren't exactly plucked
from thin air."
Hotaru stared uncomprehendingly.
"You know my history with Usagi," Rei continued. "I've said some pretty
unkind things about her from time to time. And I've thought some pretty unkind
things, too. And once I was possessed, it seemed like all of those petty, angry,
harsh things I've ever thought or felt about her just welled up and spilled out
of me like a sewer backing up. How could I ever have claimed to love her if I
had those thoughts brewing so deep inside me?"
"I know what you mean," Makoto whispered. She was leaning in the doorway,
Haruka close behind her in case she faltered. "I was saying and doing things to
her that horrified me, and yet I can't honestly say I've never thought like that
about her."
"Yeah, they didn't have to dig very far down to find the ugliness of our
souls, did they?" Minako added, framed in the doorway of the other bedroom.
Michiru could be glimpsed behind her. "Were we ever worthy to follow her?"
"There's ugliness in everyone's soul," Haruka said to them. "It's part of
the taint of being human."
"I bet there isn't any in her soul," Rei replied, her voice choked with
emotion.
"Maybe not," Hotaru told her. "Maybe that's why we follow her and trust
in her."
"Inside the peach," Setsuna said to them, "is a core that is bitter and
poisonous. Yet there is still much good to be found in the peach and the bitter
core can only be reached by stripping all the good away from it. And even new
life can be brought from this bitter core if it is sown and nourished and helped
to grow. Like the peach, you possess much good wrapped around this bitter core
of humanity's darkest elements. Like the peach, the youma could only reach the
bitter core by stripping your goodness away. And like the peach, you can take
this core and grow something better from it if you nurture it properly."
The three inner senshi gazed at the floor, chastened.
"Why Setsuna," Michiru smiled, her eyebrow arched. "That was absolutely
poetic."
"I don't know," Minako said, a devilish smirk curling the corner of her
mouth. "It sounded to me like she's saying we're kind of fruity."
Everyone groaned at the terrible joke.
"I don't get it," Hotaru said blankly.
"You will when you're older," Haruka grinned.
"So where did the Black Moon sisters go?" Makoto asked. "I didn't imagine
them, did I?"
"When their increased strength proved able to compensate for the injuries
inflicted upon them," Setsuna told her, "they departed for the hospital to see
Usagi."
"If you three are up to it, I think we should go, too," Michiru advised.
"Yeah," Minako agreed. "Because we've got some major 'splaining to do."
* * * *
The hospital room in the Intensive Care Unit was small compared to the
other rooms in the hospital. There was room for a bed, room for the supply
cabinets and room for the necessary life support machines that a patient would
need. When there were no attending medical personnel present, there was also
room on one side of the bed for a single chair.
Sitting in that chair, staring at her mother as she lay in the ICU
hospital bed, was a small, frail little shell of a girl who had once been Usagi
Tsukino. That girl had bright, fun, impish blue eyes; this person didn't. That
girl had a smile that was easily triggered and which lit up a room; this person
smiled very little. That girl seemed carefree and brimming with life; this
person seemed burdened by the weight of the world and was haunted by the specter
of death.
She glanced up at the video display terminal above her mother's bed.
There were lines scrolling across the screen. Some would jump occasionally,
others wouldn't. It was all gibberish to her, though. She had no idea if it
meant her mother was good, bad or unchanged.
"Mama?" Usagi whispered to the silent woman in the bed with the bandages
on her head and arms. If she looked closely at the swollen face, she could
almost make out the face of the woman who expected so much of her, who rode her
constantly to do better and disciplined her when she did wrong, but who
inevitably forgave her for whatever sin she committed. "Please speak to me. I
wouldn't even get mad if you yelled at me."
Ikuko's chest rose and fell with rhythmic sameness. The monitor above her
flashed silently, it's audio readout on mute.
A nurse eased in as quietly as possible and checked the IV bag. With
practiced dexterity she had the empty bag off and a fresh one hooked up in
seconds while making only a minimum of sound. She reprogrammed the automated
drip feed while Usagi stared.
"How is she?" Usagi asked, teetering on the brink of collapse.
"She's still guarded," the nurse replied softly. "Her signs are beginning
to stabilize and that's a good sign. They haven't found any signs of cranial
bleeding and that's a good sign, too."
"Then why doesn't she wake up?"
"She'll wake up when she's ready."
Usagi stared at her mother, muted terror in her eyes.
"Is she going to die?" Usagi asked in a tiny voice.
"Not if we can help it," the nurse replied, squeezing Usagi's shoulder.
"Have faith."
The nurse left Usagi alone with her fears and her grief. The young girl
stared at her mother intently, hands balled into a single fist and pressed to
her mouth as she leaned forward. Kenji and Shingo were resting comfortably in
one of the upstairs wards. They were battered and bruised and Kenji had a
dislocated arm, but they were in no danger. Ikuko had not been so fortunate.
"You can't die, Mama," Usagi said shakily. "You still have so much you
have to yell at me for."
The minutes seemed to pass with elephantine speed. The unchanging LED
readouts from the overhead monitor kept time with the rise and fall of Ikuko's
chest. Outside, other grieving people would wander in and out of other rooms,
as oblivious to Usagi's grief as Usagi was to theirs. Occasionally some piece
of equipment would be wheeled into a room. And Usagi sat and stared, surrounded
by her grief and her fears and her guilt.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," the nurse said and Usagi looked up uncomprehendingly.
"The doctor needs to run some more tests on your mother. Could you please go
out to the waiting room?"
"Can't I stay here?" Usagi whimpered.
"The doctor has to be able to work in peace so he can do the very best for
your mother," the nurse smiled patiently. "Please go out to the waiting room.
He'll come for you when he has something new to tell you."
Usagi reluctantly surrendered her place in the ICU and wandered out to the
waiting room. She had been in so many waiting rooms so many times over the past
few days that she had come to dread the neutral colors on the walls and the
neutral fabrics on the furniture, and the looks of quiet desperation and worry
on the faces of the other people there. It was the first time she had been in
the Intensive Care waiting room. It was like all the other ones, only more so.
The desperation and worry in the other people was just that much worse. And the
other waiting rooms didn't have pillows and blankets for the people who spent
the night. Usagi glanced around fleetingly. She and they were strangers linked
with a single common element: they all had a loved one they were faced with
losing.
Spotting a pay phone, Usagi walked over to it. Fishing through her purse,
she came up with a phone number. When she came in contact with the operator,
she spent half a minute fishing through her family's valuables, entrusted to her
by the hospital, until she found her father's credit card. Then she spent an
agonizing few minutes waiting for the overseas lines to connect. Usagi trembled,
oblivious to the world, scarcely breathing lest she drown out the voice on the
other end she needed to hear.
"Hello?" grunted a male voice thick with sleep.
"Mamo-chan?" she squeaked tearfully.
"Usako?" he replied more alertly.
"Did I wake you?"
"It's all right. I had to get up in another seven hours anyway. Are the
other senshi still giving you problems?"
"They hurt Mom," she said, the fragility of her mental state clear in her
voice. "They attacked my family. Daddy and Shingo . . . Mom's not awake yet.
They can't wake her up, Mamo-chan. Oh, it's all my fault. It's Ami all over
again!"
"No it's not, Usako. Did your mother suffer some sort of head injury?"
"I don't know. I wasn't there. Her face is all swollen - - but I wasn't
there!" Usagi gathered herself and fought back her emotions. "I'm sorry I
called you. I'm trying not to be needy."
"It's all right. I understand. I just wish I could be there for you."
"No. You stay in America and study and pass and make me proud. Don't
come back. They'll hurt you, too. They've hurt everyone I love. I don't want
them to hurt you, too."
"Usako, they won't hurt me. Don't worry about me. Do whatever you have to
do to protect your family and get your friends back. I won't look down on you,
whatever you have to do."
"I'm not strong enough," Usagi whimpered.
"This enemy wouldn't fear you if you weren't strong. Do you believe
that?"
"Yes," she said finally. "I believe anything you tell me."
"Good. I'll have to remember that when we're married." Usagi giggled
between her sniffles and it made Mamoru feel good.
"But I'm tired of having to be strong," she whimpered. "I want to just
curl up against somebody else and let them be strong."
"Growing up isn't easy, Usako, especially under these circumstances. But
you can do it. I believe in you. Now go do what you have to do, guarded with
my eternal love."
"I miss you so."
"I miss you, too. Courage and faith, Usako."
Usagi hung up the phone. She stared at her lap for the longest time.
Finally she looked up and noticed the Black Moon sisters standing by the door.
Cooan was a little worse for wear, but they all seemed recovered from their
battle. Petz came over and knelt beside Usagi.
"Have you checked on your family recently?" she asked.
"The doctor said he'd come out when he had news," Usagi responded.
"If he cares," scowled Karaberas.
Petz gave her a quick glare, then returned to Usagi. "Don't mind her.
She's cynical. Can we get you something?"
"No. You've done so much for me already," Usagi said. "You risked your
lives to save my family and my friends."
"Didn't you and the others do that for us?" Beruche offered.
"It's what we have to do for others," Petz smiled. "You taught us that."
Usagi looked to her lap again, sheepishly. "Thank you seems so small."
"Thank you is more than enough," Petz replied.
"Have you talked with your friends yet?" Cooan asked.
"I'm not sure they want to talk to me."
"Why wouldn't they?" Beruche asked.
"I think I let them down. I don't think they really think very much of me
anymore."
"I think you're letting . . ." began Petz.
But a shriek of mortal terror interrupted her. The sisters turned and
crowded into the doorway, trying to see the cause of the disturbance. Usagi
pulled herself up off the chair she was on, climbed another chair and peered
over Petz' shoulder.
Wading through the corridor from the stairwell to the Intensive Care Unit
was a woman cast in ebony, her silver hair flowing behind her. Littering the
hall behind her were broken doors, broken furnishings and broken people. An
orderly and a security guard were trying to restrain her without success.
"Hey, it's that thing we saw in the playground!" gasped Cooan. "The one
that tried to possess Usagi!"
"Not quite," Petz judged. "The hair color is different. But we have to
assume she's after Usagi."
"Or my family!" cried Usagi.
Tygos reached up and seized the orderly by the throat while shrugging off
the guard. She took hold of his chin and, in an act of pure barbaric brutality,
twisted until the neck snapped.
"No!" wailed Usagi. She surged through the gathered sisters. "Don't hurt
him!" Petz and Karaberas had to restrain her from charging the menace. Usagi
struggled impotently to pull free.
"Usagi!" hissed Petz. "Find a place to change to Sailor Moon. Call the
other senshi. We'll keep this thing away from your family."
Usagi seemed to want to argue, but Petz gave her a stern look and she
capitulated. The girl ran down the hall and turned right toward X-ray.
Bursting through the door, she ran right into the x-ray attendant.
"Take a wrong turn?" he grinned, impressed by her youthful charm.
"Um," Usagi began, trying to think quickly, "there's a disturbance out in
the hall! Can you call security?"
"Let me have a look," he replied, growing concerned. "You stay here."
No sooner was the attendant out the door then Usagi transformed into
Eternal Sailor Moon. She pulled her communicator up and put out a general
distress send. Pluto's face appeared instantly.
"What is it, Sailor Moon?" she asked with controlled urgency.
"The hospital's under attack! I think they're after my family!"
"We're already on the way. Have courage, Sailor Moon."
Sailor Moon bolted out the door and skidded to a stop at the center of the
hall conjunction. Her eyes bugged out in shock. Petz was prone on the floor,
struggling to rise. The demon had Beruche by the throat and held her off the
floor. Karaberas had the demon's right arm wrapped in her whip and was
straining to hold it. Cooan was nowhere to be found.
"Let her go!" shrieked Sailor Moon.
Tygos turned to Sailor Moon and her malevolent white eyes seemed to
sparkle with recognition. She took two steps toward Sailor Moon, dragging
Karaberas behind her.
Sailor Moon brought up the Moon Tier. Before she could speak the power
phrase, Tygos launched the limp body of Beruche at her. Beruche struck Sailor
Moon about hip high and both girls slammed against the wall, falling into a heap
on the floor.
"My Mistress has ordered your death, Sailor Moon," Tygos announced. "And
so you shall die."
"Confident little thing," grunted Karaberas, "aren't you?" She redoubled
her efforts to hold Tygos back.
Tygos flexed her feminine shoulders. Karaberas was whipped off her feet
and slammed against the wall. She sank to the floor and struggled to stay
awake.
Beruche and Sailor Moon were trying to pull themselves to their feet.
Tygos walked down the hall with supreme confidence, her attention fixated on
Sailor Moon and her mission. As she passed the doorway to the waiting room,
Cooan launched herself at Tygos, slamming her shoulder into her foe. Tygos was
pushed into the wall, but slapped Cooan away with ease. Cooan rolled to a stop
near Petz.
"Not that easily," growled Cooan. From her knees she summoned the fire
and threw a fireball that exploded around Tygos. Engulfed, Tygos was seemingly
immolated on the spot by the inferno. However, seconds later, Tygos emerged
from the fire unfazed by it. The flames did succeed in triggering the sprinkler
system and set off fire alarms throughout the hospital.
"Get behind me, Sailor Moon," Beruche whispered, staring intently at the
on-coming demon. As Sailor Moon pressed to the wall, Beruche brought her ice
powers to bear, freezing the water on and around Tygos and layering it with
additional ice frozen from the moisture in the air. Tygos came to a halt,
stiffening with the forming ice. Everyone stared when she was frozen solid,
hopeful the crisis was over.
"I think you got it," Cooan said.
"And you always doubted my abilities," smiled Beruche.
Then ice chunks flew everywhere. Beruche and Sailor Moon threw up their
arms to deflect ice shards. Looking up, they saw Tygos advancing relentlessly
on them.
Beruche tried to freeze her again, but received a brutal backhand that
flung her to the floor. Sailor Moon brought up the Moon Tier. Tygos quickly
swatted it from her hands, sending it clattering down the hall. Before she
could move, twin obsidian hands closed around Sailor Moon's delicate throat.
Her windpipe constricted. Sailor Moon's hands closed around the demon's
wrists. She tried to pry them off, but the arms were like iron and immobile. A
small sound escaped her mouth and it sounded like the cry of a terrified little
child.
The strength of Tygos forced Sailor Moon to her knees. Struggling for
breath that wouldn't come, she looked up into the demon's phosphorescent eyes,
silently pleading for her to stop.
Continued in part 9
Part 8: "The Direct Approach"
By Bill K
Luna glanced at the clock on the infirmary wall. It was approaching nine
a.m. She'd neither seen nor heard anything about what was happening in the
outside world since Usagi left with Artemis around four the previous afternoon.
She'd tried to sleep and let her body heal, but worry prevented her from doing
so.
"The devil take these blasted ribs," she muttered, rising gingerly so as
not to jar them and receive another painful rebuke from her skeleton. The
muscles in between the bones protested at being forced to move and the black cat
winced.
She stared out through the bars of her cage, frustrated at her inactivity
and her inability to know precisely what was going on. On impulse, she reached
through the bars and tried to snag the latch with her paw to open it. However,
it was the paw with the torn claws and that, coupled with her aching ribs,
forced her to pull it back in before she could open the latch. The cat expelled
a very human sigh of frustration.
"Oh, I wish someone would get me out of here," she muttered. "If I have
to spend much more time wondering and worrying, I think I shall surely go mad."
* * * *
Ami ran down the street, hoping to head off Usagi. She had finally gotten
released from the hospital late last night. Her mother had taken her straight
home and forbade her from going out once they were in the penthouse apartment.
It hadn't prevented Ami from trying to call Usagi; however, each of the ten
times she attempted a call, she received a recorded message saying the number
was temporarily out of order. Ami fell into a fitful sleep that night only at
the behest of her mother.
Finally in the morning her mother realized the impossibility of keeping
the two girls separate for the rest of time and reluctantly granted Ami
permission to go to Usagi's house, but only with a dire warning to remain alert
at all times and tend to her own safety. Ami was out of the apartment inside of
thirty seconds and running toward the Tsukino home.
"It's not likely Usagi's going in to school today, given the current
emergency," Ami reasoned as she ran. "I don't know where to start searching if
she's already left."
Her line of reasoning trailed off when she got in sight of the home.
Police crime scene tape surrounded the home. As she approached, Ami could see
the front door had been ripped from its frame and the front window was broken.
A police car stood guard by the front gate. For several moments Ami stared, too
stunned to move. Then she broke into a run and ran up to the officer next to
the car.
"Officer, please!" Ami cried, clutching at his arm. "What happened here?"
"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.
"My name is Ami Mizuno! I'm a friend of the girl who lives here! Please,
tell me what happened? Is Usagi hurt?"
"I'm sorry," the officer replied. "I'm not allowed to discuss the
specifics of the case. As to the residents, they were transported to the
hospital. They'll be able to give you more information on their condition."
Ami stared at him in shock. When she finally realized she wasn't going to
get any more information from him, she stumbled away from him and numbly walked
down the street. Several houses away, though, she heard a voice hiss at her.
"Ami!" She looked down to the left and, crouched in the gateway of a
house, was Artemis.
"Artemis!" she gasped, scooping him up. He winced when her hand touched
his broken foreleg. "Where's Usagi?"
"I don't know."
"What happened here?"
"The renegade senshi attacked Usagi's family to draw her out," Artemis
told her. Ami shuddered at the thought of such blatant cruelty. "Usagi and the
Black Moon sisters chased them off. I couldn't keep up and lost them."
"The Black Moon sisters?" gasped Ami.
"Well, Usagi couldn't take those girls on alone."
"Then Usagi could be. . ." Ami began fearfully.
"I just don't know. If you've got your communicator, we can call Saturn
or one of the other outers. Maybe they know something."
Ami looked down and saw the communicator was missing.
"That's right," she whispered. "We destroyed them so you and Luna couldn't
track us. Oh, Artemis, it's just one nightmare after another!"
"Yeah. So how much do you remember?"
Ami didn't answer. The welling tears and the trembling lower lip were
answer enough.
* * * *
"Ahhhhhhhh!" Rei gasped as she jumped to consciousness. Disoriented, she
looked around. At first, her surroundings seemed alien. Then she recognized it
as the home the outer senshi shared.
A hand touched her shoulder and she recoiled fearfully. But when she
turned, it was only Hotaru, her hand pulled back in surprise. Rei let her
breath expel.
"Sorry if I scared you," Rei whispered.
"Sorry if I scared you," countered the young girl. "Do you remember what
happened to you?"
Rei searched her mind for a moment. Suddenly it all came flooding back.
Her lower lip began to quiver and her hand went to cover her mouth, to somehow
smother the sob that was coming. A tear trickled down her cheek. Instantly
Hotaru was beside her, holding onto her.
"You remember it all, don't you?" she asked. Rei nodded, her personal
pain mirrored on her face. "I know what it's like. Waking up and suddenly
remembering unspeakable acts of evil being committed by some alien force using
your body. I know what you're going through."
Rei turned to her, sympathy glimmering through her own pain and guilt.
"Just remember it's not your fault," Hotaru smiled. "Don't blame
yourself."
Rei gathered the girl up in her arms and hugged her tight, almost clinging
to her for strength.
"Is Usagi all right?" Rei asked.
"The Princess is physically well," Setsuna said, entering the room. "I
cannot speak to her emotional well-being. She has gone to tend to her family."
"Just as well," whispered Rei. "I'm not sure I could face her right now."
"Why not?" demanded Hotaru.
"After all I've done to her? After everything I said, every physical and
emotional scar I've inflicted on her the last few days?"
"That is ridiculous," Setsuna said, evenly and emotionlessly. "It is as
Hotaru said. You were controlled."
"We let ourselves be controlled," Rei replied. "We weren't strong enough
to fight back. We weren't strong enough to keep from being forced to inflict
all this pain and suffering. And," and Rei looked down in shame, "and those
things we said - - at least in my case - - well, they weren't exactly plucked
from thin air."
Hotaru stared uncomprehendingly.
"You know my history with Usagi," Rei continued. "I've said some pretty
unkind things about her from time to time. And I've thought some pretty unkind
things, too. And once I was possessed, it seemed like all of those petty, angry,
harsh things I've ever thought or felt about her just welled up and spilled out
of me like a sewer backing up. How could I ever have claimed to love her if I
had those thoughts brewing so deep inside me?"
"I know what you mean," Makoto whispered. She was leaning in the doorway,
Haruka close behind her in case she faltered. "I was saying and doing things to
her that horrified me, and yet I can't honestly say I've never thought like that
about her."
"Yeah, they didn't have to dig very far down to find the ugliness of our
souls, did they?" Minako added, framed in the doorway of the other bedroom.
Michiru could be glimpsed behind her. "Were we ever worthy to follow her?"
"There's ugliness in everyone's soul," Haruka said to them. "It's part of
the taint of being human."
"I bet there isn't any in her soul," Rei replied, her voice choked with
emotion.
"Maybe not," Hotaru told her. "Maybe that's why we follow her and trust
in her."
"Inside the peach," Setsuna said to them, "is a core that is bitter and
poisonous. Yet there is still much good to be found in the peach and the bitter
core can only be reached by stripping all the good away from it. And even new
life can be brought from this bitter core if it is sown and nourished and helped
to grow. Like the peach, you possess much good wrapped around this bitter core
of humanity's darkest elements. Like the peach, the youma could only reach the
bitter core by stripping your goodness away. And like the peach, you can take
this core and grow something better from it if you nurture it properly."
The three inner senshi gazed at the floor, chastened.
"Why Setsuna," Michiru smiled, her eyebrow arched. "That was absolutely
poetic."
"I don't know," Minako said, a devilish smirk curling the corner of her
mouth. "It sounded to me like she's saying we're kind of fruity."
Everyone groaned at the terrible joke.
"I don't get it," Hotaru said blankly.
"You will when you're older," Haruka grinned.
"So where did the Black Moon sisters go?" Makoto asked. "I didn't imagine
them, did I?"
"When their increased strength proved able to compensate for the injuries
inflicted upon them," Setsuna told her, "they departed for the hospital to see
Usagi."
"If you three are up to it, I think we should go, too," Michiru advised.
"Yeah," Minako agreed. "Because we've got some major 'splaining to do."
* * * *
The hospital room in the Intensive Care Unit was small compared to the
other rooms in the hospital. There was room for a bed, room for the supply
cabinets and room for the necessary life support machines that a patient would
need. When there were no attending medical personnel present, there was also
room on one side of the bed for a single chair.
Sitting in that chair, staring at her mother as she lay in the ICU
hospital bed, was a small, frail little shell of a girl who had once been Usagi
Tsukino. That girl had bright, fun, impish blue eyes; this person didn't. That
girl had a smile that was easily triggered and which lit up a room; this person
smiled very little. That girl seemed carefree and brimming with life; this
person seemed burdened by the weight of the world and was haunted by the specter
of death.
She glanced up at the video display terminal above her mother's bed.
There were lines scrolling across the screen. Some would jump occasionally,
others wouldn't. It was all gibberish to her, though. She had no idea if it
meant her mother was good, bad or unchanged.
"Mama?" Usagi whispered to the silent woman in the bed with the bandages
on her head and arms. If she looked closely at the swollen face, she could
almost make out the face of the woman who expected so much of her, who rode her
constantly to do better and disciplined her when she did wrong, but who
inevitably forgave her for whatever sin she committed. "Please speak to me. I
wouldn't even get mad if you yelled at me."
Ikuko's chest rose and fell with rhythmic sameness. The monitor above her
flashed silently, it's audio readout on mute.
A nurse eased in as quietly as possible and checked the IV bag. With
practiced dexterity she had the empty bag off and a fresh one hooked up in
seconds while making only a minimum of sound. She reprogrammed the automated
drip feed while Usagi stared.
"How is she?" Usagi asked, teetering on the brink of collapse.
"She's still guarded," the nurse replied softly. "Her signs are beginning
to stabilize and that's a good sign. They haven't found any signs of cranial
bleeding and that's a good sign, too."
"Then why doesn't she wake up?"
"She'll wake up when she's ready."
Usagi stared at her mother, muted terror in her eyes.
"Is she going to die?" Usagi asked in a tiny voice.
"Not if we can help it," the nurse replied, squeezing Usagi's shoulder.
"Have faith."
The nurse left Usagi alone with her fears and her grief. The young girl
stared at her mother intently, hands balled into a single fist and pressed to
her mouth as she leaned forward. Kenji and Shingo were resting comfortably in
one of the upstairs wards. They were battered and bruised and Kenji had a
dislocated arm, but they were in no danger. Ikuko had not been so fortunate.
"You can't die, Mama," Usagi said shakily. "You still have so much you
have to yell at me for."
The minutes seemed to pass with elephantine speed. The unchanging LED
readouts from the overhead monitor kept time with the rise and fall of Ikuko's
chest. Outside, other grieving people would wander in and out of other rooms,
as oblivious to Usagi's grief as Usagi was to theirs. Occasionally some piece
of equipment would be wheeled into a room. And Usagi sat and stared, surrounded
by her grief and her fears and her guilt.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," the nurse said and Usagi looked up uncomprehendingly.
"The doctor needs to run some more tests on your mother. Could you please go
out to the waiting room?"
"Can't I stay here?" Usagi whimpered.
"The doctor has to be able to work in peace so he can do the very best for
your mother," the nurse smiled patiently. "Please go out to the waiting room.
He'll come for you when he has something new to tell you."
Usagi reluctantly surrendered her place in the ICU and wandered out to the
waiting room. She had been in so many waiting rooms so many times over the past
few days that she had come to dread the neutral colors on the walls and the
neutral fabrics on the furniture, and the looks of quiet desperation and worry
on the faces of the other people there. It was the first time she had been in
the Intensive Care waiting room. It was like all the other ones, only more so.
The desperation and worry in the other people was just that much worse. And the
other waiting rooms didn't have pillows and blankets for the people who spent
the night. Usagi glanced around fleetingly. She and they were strangers linked
with a single common element: they all had a loved one they were faced with
losing.
Spotting a pay phone, Usagi walked over to it. Fishing through her purse,
she came up with a phone number. When she came in contact with the operator,
she spent half a minute fishing through her family's valuables, entrusted to her
by the hospital, until she found her father's credit card. Then she spent an
agonizing few minutes waiting for the overseas lines to connect. Usagi trembled,
oblivious to the world, scarcely breathing lest she drown out the voice on the
other end she needed to hear.
"Hello?" grunted a male voice thick with sleep.
"Mamo-chan?" she squeaked tearfully.
"Usako?" he replied more alertly.
"Did I wake you?"
"It's all right. I had to get up in another seven hours anyway. Are the
other senshi still giving you problems?"
"They hurt Mom," she said, the fragility of her mental state clear in her
voice. "They attacked my family. Daddy and Shingo . . . Mom's not awake yet.
They can't wake her up, Mamo-chan. Oh, it's all my fault. It's Ami all over
again!"
"No it's not, Usako. Did your mother suffer some sort of head injury?"
"I don't know. I wasn't there. Her face is all swollen - - but I wasn't
there!" Usagi gathered herself and fought back her emotions. "I'm sorry I
called you. I'm trying not to be needy."
"It's all right. I understand. I just wish I could be there for you."
"No. You stay in America and study and pass and make me proud. Don't
come back. They'll hurt you, too. They've hurt everyone I love. I don't want
them to hurt you, too."
"Usako, they won't hurt me. Don't worry about me. Do whatever you have to
do to protect your family and get your friends back. I won't look down on you,
whatever you have to do."
"I'm not strong enough," Usagi whimpered.
"This enemy wouldn't fear you if you weren't strong. Do you believe
that?"
"Yes," she said finally. "I believe anything you tell me."
"Good. I'll have to remember that when we're married." Usagi giggled
between her sniffles and it made Mamoru feel good.
"But I'm tired of having to be strong," she whimpered. "I want to just
curl up against somebody else and let them be strong."
"Growing up isn't easy, Usako, especially under these circumstances. But
you can do it. I believe in you. Now go do what you have to do, guarded with
my eternal love."
"I miss you so."
"I miss you, too. Courage and faith, Usako."
Usagi hung up the phone. She stared at her lap for the longest time.
Finally she looked up and noticed the Black Moon sisters standing by the door.
Cooan was a little worse for wear, but they all seemed recovered from their
battle. Petz came over and knelt beside Usagi.
"Have you checked on your family recently?" she asked.
"The doctor said he'd come out when he had news," Usagi responded.
"If he cares," scowled Karaberas.
Petz gave her a quick glare, then returned to Usagi. "Don't mind her.
She's cynical. Can we get you something?"
"No. You've done so much for me already," Usagi said. "You risked your
lives to save my family and my friends."
"Didn't you and the others do that for us?" Beruche offered.
"It's what we have to do for others," Petz smiled. "You taught us that."
Usagi looked to her lap again, sheepishly. "Thank you seems so small."
"Thank you is more than enough," Petz replied.
"Have you talked with your friends yet?" Cooan asked.
"I'm not sure they want to talk to me."
"Why wouldn't they?" Beruche asked.
"I think I let them down. I don't think they really think very much of me
anymore."
"I think you're letting . . ." began Petz.
But a shriek of mortal terror interrupted her. The sisters turned and
crowded into the doorway, trying to see the cause of the disturbance. Usagi
pulled herself up off the chair she was on, climbed another chair and peered
over Petz' shoulder.
Wading through the corridor from the stairwell to the Intensive Care Unit
was a woman cast in ebony, her silver hair flowing behind her. Littering the
hall behind her were broken doors, broken furnishings and broken people. An
orderly and a security guard were trying to restrain her without success.
"Hey, it's that thing we saw in the playground!" gasped Cooan. "The one
that tried to possess Usagi!"
"Not quite," Petz judged. "The hair color is different. But we have to
assume she's after Usagi."
"Or my family!" cried Usagi.
Tygos reached up and seized the orderly by the throat while shrugging off
the guard. She took hold of his chin and, in an act of pure barbaric brutality,
twisted until the neck snapped.
"No!" wailed Usagi. She surged through the gathered sisters. "Don't hurt
him!" Petz and Karaberas had to restrain her from charging the menace. Usagi
struggled impotently to pull free.
"Usagi!" hissed Petz. "Find a place to change to Sailor Moon. Call the
other senshi. We'll keep this thing away from your family."
Usagi seemed to want to argue, but Petz gave her a stern look and she
capitulated. The girl ran down the hall and turned right toward X-ray.
Bursting through the door, she ran right into the x-ray attendant.
"Take a wrong turn?" he grinned, impressed by her youthful charm.
"Um," Usagi began, trying to think quickly, "there's a disturbance out in
the hall! Can you call security?"
"Let me have a look," he replied, growing concerned. "You stay here."
No sooner was the attendant out the door then Usagi transformed into
Eternal Sailor Moon. She pulled her communicator up and put out a general
distress send. Pluto's face appeared instantly.
"What is it, Sailor Moon?" she asked with controlled urgency.
"The hospital's under attack! I think they're after my family!"
"We're already on the way. Have courage, Sailor Moon."
Sailor Moon bolted out the door and skidded to a stop at the center of the
hall conjunction. Her eyes bugged out in shock. Petz was prone on the floor,
struggling to rise. The demon had Beruche by the throat and held her off the
floor. Karaberas had the demon's right arm wrapped in her whip and was
straining to hold it. Cooan was nowhere to be found.
"Let her go!" shrieked Sailor Moon.
Tygos turned to Sailor Moon and her malevolent white eyes seemed to
sparkle with recognition. She took two steps toward Sailor Moon, dragging
Karaberas behind her.
Sailor Moon brought up the Moon Tier. Before she could speak the power
phrase, Tygos launched the limp body of Beruche at her. Beruche struck Sailor
Moon about hip high and both girls slammed against the wall, falling into a heap
on the floor.
"My Mistress has ordered your death, Sailor Moon," Tygos announced. "And
so you shall die."
"Confident little thing," grunted Karaberas, "aren't you?" She redoubled
her efforts to hold Tygos back.
Tygos flexed her feminine shoulders. Karaberas was whipped off her feet
and slammed against the wall. She sank to the floor and struggled to stay
awake.
Beruche and Sailor Moon were trying to pull themselves to their feet.
Tygos walked down the hall with supreme confidence, her attention fixated on
Sailor Moon and her mission. As she passed the doorway to the waiting room,
Cooan launched herself at Tygos, slamming her shoulder into her foe. Tygos was
pushed into the wall, but slapped Cooan away with ease. Cooan rolled to a stop
near Petz.
"Not that easily," growled Cooan. From her knees she summoned the fire
and threw a fireball that exploded around Tygos. Engulfed, Tygos was seemingly
immolated on the spot by the inferno. However, seconds later, Tygos emerged
from the fire unfazed by it. The flames did succeed in triggering the sprinkler
system and set off fire alarms throughout the hospital.
"Get behind me, Sailor Moon," Beruche whispered, staring intently at the
on-coming demon. As Sailor Moon pressed to the wall, Beruche brought her ice
powers to bear, freezing the water on and around Tygos and layering it with
additional ice frozen from the moisture in the air. Tygos came to a halt,
stiffening with the forming ice. Everyone stared when she was frozen solid,
hopeful the crisis was over.
"I think you got it," Cooan said.
"And you always doubted my abilities," smiled Beruche.
Then ice chunks flew everywhere. Beruche and Sailor Moon threw up their
arms to deflect ice shards. Looking up, they saw Tygos advancing relentlessly
on them.
Beruche tried to freeze her again, but received a brutal backhand that
flung her to the floor. Sailor Moon brought up the Moon Tier. Tygos quickly
swatted it from her hands, sending it clattering down the hall. Before she
could move, twin obsidian hands closed around Sailor Moon's delicate throat.
Her windpipe constricted. Sailor Moon's hands closed around the demon's
wrists. She tried to pry them off, but the arms were like iron and immobile. A
small sound escaped her mouth and it sounded like the cry of a terrified little
child.
The strength of Tygos forced Sailor Moon to her knees. Struggling for
breath that wouldn't come, she looked up into the demon's phosphorescent eyes,
silently pleading for her to stop.
Continued in part 9